WHOSE LIFE IS IT ? : PRO CHOICE

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on a case that could lead to a reversal of its decision 16 years ago legalizing abortion. As abortion proponents and opponents spilled into the streets with protests and marches this spring, it was obvious not all the voices were women’s. To better understand the men’s view, Times staff writer Dana Parsons interviewed six who have been active on one side or the other of the movement.

Jim Covial: Although he had always considered himself a pro-choice advocate, Covial, 29, took part in his first demonstration this spring in Los Angeles. “I think it really hit me that they could take (the right to an abortion) away,” he said. “I saw that Operation Rescue was gathering a lot of people; it seemed like they had momentum. Their voices were being heard. I wanted to help the people who were pro-choice have their voices heard.”

Covial, a Reseda bachelor, spends much of his time in Orange County, recruiting for a package shipping company. He has also taken part in a demonstration at a clinic in Cypress where abortions are performed.

“To me, it’s a question of personal freedom and liberty,” Covial said. “I don’t like abortion, and nobody does. I don’t like the fact that somebody has to get an abortion, but it’s a woman’s body, and once you allow the government to get inside her body and tell her what to do, what’s next? But in terms of being pro-choice, I wanted people to be aware I’m not pro-abortion, and there is a difference.”

Covial’s position is tinged by his sad conclusion that abortion represents “the taking of a life. I’ll grant that it’s a living cell. The point is, it’s still the woman’s decision to make. It’s inside her body. . . . If she’s thought it through in her conscience, with her friends, parents or just herself, and if she feels the best thing to do is not carry it to term, it’s her choice and not the government’s.”

Covial, who is black, said it’s important that men support women in the abortion controversy, just as whites supported blacks during the civil rights movement.

“If you remember the March on Washington (in 1963), part of Martin Luther King’s speech was, ‘We must not come to hate our white brothers because as evidenced here today, they have come to realize their destiny is tied up with our destiny.’ I kind of analogize that for the men in this movement. Sure I’ll never get pregnant, but I do believe a woman’s freedom is inextricably tied to mine.”

Covial is troubled by what he sees as the “hypocrisy” and “racist” agenda of many in the pro-life movement. It is largely a white middle-class movement whose members say the women should have the baby and then put the child up for adoption, he said. But those people are unlikely to adopt babies who are members of minority groups or born with handicaps, he said.

Bob Johnson: When he saw the unfair housing practices leveled against blacks in the 1960s, Johnson was outraged. And in those days of the fledgling civil rights movement, he became an activist.

Now 56, Johnson has cast his lot with the pro-choice advocates in the abortion movement, taking part in his first public demonstration in April when he joined other marchers in Santa Ana.

To Johnson, married for 33 years and the father of three grown children, the fight for the right to an abortion represents another battle for civil rights. And just as a white man speaking out for blacks 20 years ago, so now does Johnson feel he must speak out for women.

“I had a great deal of empathy for (blacks who were discriminated against),” Johnson said. “That’s all I can say. I couldn’t put myself in their shoes. I couldn’t say I understood. All I could say is, ‘You know, I’m with you in this.’ Women now and historically have been treated much like blacks. That’s where I made the transition. I could see the relationship between those two things.”

Johnson, an electronics engineer with Rockwell International and a Tustin resident, said he tries to look at issues from different sides. “I look at them from the gut, the heart and the mind. It’s easy to look at them from the mind because I’m an engineer. Yet I learned from my wife and other people how to feel more and look at things in that sense. I think it (the abortion question) is a human rights issue, I think it’s a women’s rights issue, it’s a theological issue and medical issue. And all those have influenced me, some more than others. And maybe most of all, it’s a family issue.”

Ultimately, Johnson said, he became convinced that there was no biblical imperative against abortion.

“It becomes a question of my view of life,” Johnson said. “My view of life is that you do what is the most loving thing.”

The reality of modern-day life, Johnson said, is that some people are not capable of caring for a child. “When the mother-to-be does not want the child, then my belief is that the child should not be born.”

Tim Snyder: His wife decided last fall that she wanted to get involved in the pro-choice movement. She began serving as an escort for young women seeking abortions. His wife’s involvement eventually led to Snyder’s widened participation in the movement. Snyder, 34, a truck driver from Orange and the father of two young children, began clipping articles and becoming more informed about the abortion controversy.

He found himself unable to accept the notion that a woman could be forced to give birth.

“I label myself a liberal, whether that has anything to do with it or not,” Snyder said. “I always felt people’s rights are utmost. . . . If they reverse this law, what’s next? What are they going to take away next?”

Snyder said he had to grapple with the question of when life begins and whether aborting a fetus is murder. He reached a difficult, but unwavering, conclusion, he said.

“I would rather see a fetus aborted at an early stage than to see an unwanted child brought into this world. There are too many out there now. Too many abused, neglected children--already thousands, if not millions. I don’t agree with forced motherhood. If I thought my own kids (ages 10 and 7) stood a chance of being unwanted, neglected or abused, I would not want them brought into the world to begin with.”

While he was certain of the correctness of his position, Snyder is surprised at how active he has become. “I was really shocked. I didn’t expect to be getting up at 5 in the morning and be going to the Orange clinic and standing my ground for human rights and women’s rights. I was probably as surprised as anyone that I was out there because I’m normally introverted. I’m basically concerned about my family, my kids, and that’s usually as far as it goes. But I see it affecting my wife and myself and my kids’ future. So it’s something that needs to be done.”